Business Briefs

business Colleen's School of Dance moves
WILLMAR -- After 25 years at the same location, Colleen's School of Dance is moving from 102 Sixth St. S.W. to a new location at 132 Benson Ave. S.W., announces owner Colleen Peterson.
The dance school was started 28 years ago and its original owner and new owner both...
Willmar, 56201

Willmar Minnesota 2208 Trott Ave. SW / P.O. Box 839 56201

2012-11-30 12:15:51

Colleen's School of Dance moves

WILLMAR -- After 25 years at the same location, Colleen's School of Dance is moving from 102 Sixth St. S.W. to a new location at 132 Benson Ave. S.W., announces owner Colleen Peterson.

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The dance school was started 28 years ago and its original owner and new owner both have the same name of Colleen, although not related. Colleen Peterson said she is making some changes to the building at the new location and will have an open house before the dance season resumes.

MnDOT names Odens assistant district engineer

WILLMAR -- Mel Odens of Willmar has been appointed assistant district engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation at the District 8 office in Willmar. Odens replaces Tom Behm, who retired in February 2010.

Odens will be responsible for state aid, bridges, signs and cost estimating for the 12 counties in District 8 -- Kandiyohi, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Meeker, McLeod, Murray, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville and Yellow Medicine -- and the seven state aid cities within those counties. He will work out of the Willmar and Marshall MnDOT offices.

In his more than 25 years of public service, Odens has worked for both city and state government. Most recently he served nearly 14 years as the city public works director for the city of Willmar. Previously, from 1985 to 1996, Odens worked as a supervisor and design engineer for the South Dakota Department of Transportation. Odens received his civil engineering degree from South Dakota State University in Brookings.

Odens has been involved in the City Engineers Association of Minnesota, American Public Works Association, Local Road Research, Rotary and various state organizations and committees.

Mootz is a 2000 graduate of Willmar Senior High School and graduated from Northwestern Health Sciences University in 2006, magna cum laude. After graduation, he was employed by Integrated Healthcare Services in St. Paul.

He is a chiropractic acupuncturist and also specializes in rehabilitation therapy, nutrition counseling and sport/kinesio-taping.

Mootz Chiropractic has been in business for 34 years in Willmar. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday by appointment.

Awards

- Several Affiliated Community Medical Centers clinics received the Governor's Safety Award recently from the Minnesota Safety Council.

The awards program honors Minnesota employers with exceptional safety performance. Applicants are judged on several years of injury data benchmarked against state and national statistics, and on their progress in implementing a comprehensive safety program. Winners are recognized at three levels: meritorious achievement, outstanding achievement and the award of honor.

ACMC clinics in Litchfield, Redwood Falls and Willmar all earned a meritorious achievement award. The award is reserved for above-average performance in incident rates and implementation of at least half of specified safety program benchmarks.

The Marshall clinic received the outstanding achievement award, which is given for demonstrating continued improvement and/or a continued outstanding record and implementation of 75 percent of safety program benchmarks.

- Minnesota Bridges to Excellence has recognized three Affiliated Community Medical Centers clinics as award winners in four categories by the Buyers Health Care Action Group.

The Bridges to Excellence program was established in 2005. It relies on data that is publicly reported to identify clinics that qualify for an achievement award for meeting or exceeding optimal care standards for specified percentage of patients.

ACMC-Benson and ACMC-Granite Falls were recognized for improvement in optimal vascular care. The ACMC-Litchfield East clinic was honored for achievement in optimal diabetes care and optimal vascular care.

To be eligible for a Bridges to Excellence award, clinics had to have a certain percentage of patients at optimal levels of care.

Diabetes measurements included levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, along with nonsmoking status and daily aspirin use for patients over 40. Vascular disease measurements included cholesterol and blood pressure, along with nonsmoking status and daily aspirin use for all patients.